10 Huge Unexplained TV Mysteries (That Were Totally Solved)

2. What Happened To The Unkillable Russian? - The Sopranos

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HBO

The Mystery

While the ending of The Sopranos will be debated to the end of time, the show left plenty of other questions for viewers to mull over. One of the top mysteries is what happened to Valery, the seemingly unkillable Russian mobster from the Pine Barrens episode?

Valery is taken out to the woods by Paulie and Christopher to be killed, but he escapes – after taking a bullet to the head – and is never seen again. Paulie’s car is later found missing, which implies he escaped, but no mention is made in later episodes. This was intentional on David Chase’s part, who felt it was stronger if Valery just vanished without explanation.

The Answer

Eventually Chase went crazy being asked about it all the time, and finally revealed what happened. It turns out Valery soon collapsed from his wound, only to be found by Boy Scouts in the woods. He was taken to the hospital, but since he suffered massive brain trauma he couldn’t explain what happened to him.

His boss later shipped him back to Russia to be with his family. The mystery was cooler, no?

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